Retreater said:
Sorry. Whatever Wraithstrike and Aberrant Trolls are, they're not in any book I own. Our game is more or less restricted to Core Rules only, for players and the DM.
Wraithstrike is in the Spell Compendium and is widely considered to be an extremely broken spell. I think he meant Aberrant troll as in a troll that wasn't normal, not as in a specific type of troll. Since Trolls aren't normally casters, having one that was, would be an "aberration".
RE: Your "scaling" idea tying everything to what the PCs can do.
I do not like it personally. It homogenizes things too much. Applying it as a rough guide wouldn't hurt, but you shouldn't reduce the monsters to simply X*Y.
Retreater said:
I was looking at a few encounters for next session and wondering what you guys thought. Most of these are in the EL 12-14 range. This is for a volcanic type dungeon.
8 average salamanders
The floor in this chamber is actually just a thin crust of cooled rock over a pool of lava. Characters walking on it must succeed on a Reflex save or fall through the cracks that form when more than 100 pounds of pressure is applied to more than 5 feet. Fortunately, this can be avoided. The party's rogue (or flying character) can go across the pool, and enter the next room in the keep. There is a lever to lower a bridge. Unfortunately, there are two fire giants standing guard. Characters who begin to puncture the crust of rock get the attention of 8 average salamanders, who break through the crust to attack. These do not use spears but instead use grappling tactics to pull characters into the lava.
2 fire giants, rakshasa
The rakshasa is invisible and has cast Protection from Good on the two fire giants (making them immune from contact with summoned creatures). He casts Protection from Energy (cold) on the fire giants. He also casts haste on the fire giants, improving their AC and granting them an extra attack. (He's probably had several rounds to prepare since the fight in the previous room.
2 juvenile red dragons, 1 young adult red dragon.
This encounter will take place inside a massive lava chamber. The characters will be walking on a fairly wide (20 ft) ledge that spirals up to the caldera of the volcano. The juvenile dragons will stay out of reach, doing strafing runs with their breath weapons. The young adult will attempt to bull rush characters into the lava pool below or snatch and drop into the lava. They will stay out of reach unless one of the juvenile dragons are killed. If this happens the other juvenile will fly back to the nest and the mother dragon will land and attempt to kill the party.
6 greater shadows
The characters are passing through a 5 ft wide tunnel. Shadows come out of both walls to attack each character. They use the wall as cover, attacking and then retreating into the walls.
We need harder numbers on the characters to really judge. The fire giants and the Rakshasa could probably use a couple more minion types. Perhaps some barbarian ogres, something to suck up attacks and spread the damage around a bit. Toss in some archers as well. You might want to customize the feats on the giants to give them something like Awesome Blow.
AWESOME BLOW [GENERAL, FIGHTER]
Prerequisites: Str 25, Power Attack, Improved Bull Rush, size Large or larger.
Benefit: As a standard action, the creature may choose to subtract 4 from its melee attack roll and deliver an awesome blow. If the creature hits a corporeal opponent smaller than itself with an awesome blow, its opponent must succeed on a Reflex save (DC = damage dealt) or be knocked flying 10 feet in a direction of the attacking creature’s choice and fall prone. The attacking creature can only push the opponent in a straight line, and the opponent can’t move closer to the attacking creature than the square it started in. If an obstacle prevents the completion of the opponent’s move, the opponent and the obstacle each take 1d6 points of damage, and the opponent stops in the space adjacent to the obstacle.
The regular Salamanders on their own aren't likely to slow down the party much. I'd make it more like two Nobles and 3-4 normal. Have the normal salamanders use alternative tactics like tripping, disarming or grappling. Since those sorts of attacks can bypass or negate a lot of the advantages that PCs can have. Use the normal salamanders to tie up the front line fighters so the Nobles can go after the druid and wiz. Don't forget the Noble's SLAs like fireball and summoning huge fire elementals.
I'd go with a mated pair of Young Adult Reds, rather than the two juveniles and the Young Adult. Don't forget they cast as 5th lvl sorcs. Lots of good buff spells for the dragons out of that.
Set said:
An Alienist summoning up Pseudonatural Earth Elementals can be a rude surprise. Those are the last critters you'd ever want to be able to use True Strike! Huge / Elder Earth Elementals are pretty buff. Adding other templates to them, such as Half-Fiendish, can really tweak them out.
According to RAW, the Alienist in 3.5 can not summon non-fiendish/celestial creatures, since the pseudonatural template replaces those templates. I think this gimps an already substandard choice (summoning is one of the weakest specialties for a wiz), particularly since at higher levels the elementals are hands down the best summons. Personally, I don't think tacking on the pseudonatural template makes much of a difference for most of the stuff. But if you are going to permit an alienist to summon non-templated creatures, then it should probably be without the pseudonatural template.
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